An Olive Grove in Ends Quotes

“It seemed children who were denied their childishness always found a way to express it in later life.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“A car pulled up behind us ... some yutes stepped from it. They all wore masks and gloves; it was like a surgeons' convention. And in many ways it was; everyone had blood on their hands.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“The seasons were getting ready to swap shifts. The gloom hadn't completely taken the skies but the grey that characterised the British firmament was arriving at an alarming pace.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“Perhaps as the Patois and Somali languages were poured into the Black-British pot our cultures would grow in love for one another, but there was an equal chance they would mix like oil and water and refuse to be branded by the disingenuous stamp of race.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“And what a strange emotion disappointment was to circumnavigate. It wasn't a mountain to climb, or a valley to trek. It didn't share the emotional highs that anger brought, nor was it low enough to wallow in depression. It was slow and stagnant, like a marsh on a moor. It sapped your will and made your legs tired.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“Childhood and innocence are only synonymous to the privileged.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“September came faster than a virgin who lied to have his cherry popped.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“And what a strange emotion disappointment was to circumnavigate. It wasn't a mountain to climb, or a valley to trek. It didn't share the emotional highs that anger brought, nor was it low enough to wallow in depression. It was slow and stagnant, like a marsh on a moor. It sapped your will and made your legs tired. I knew it well.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“Before, if someone asked me to describe her, I would've said that she was a light. One that everyone wanted for themselves . At times her energy would often be drained brightening those around her...”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“But my pleasantries were gobbledygook, gibberish to set aside like an apple pie on a fairy-tale windowsill.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“A second later a body dropped down from the wall and the crime rate rose.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“For Pastor Lyle, who believed that accountability trumped circumstance, me and mine would always be responsible for own own misfortune. In their eyes, we would always be deserving of any ill we suffered, but what choice did we have?”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“If fraudsters were given the tools they would inject a new life into banking. Some of the hardest-working people I knew sold drugs. And anyone who sold drugs spent the little time they had spare working to live in the sun. All we had to overcome was generations of trauma passed on by relatives and a system intent on keeping us in place.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“The seasons were getting ready to swap shifts.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“A lifetime of disrespect suffered at the hands of their partners and employers meant they had grasped seniority with two hands, and they would not be letting go for anyone.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“He laughed like adults did, without paying any real attention to whether the joke was funny or not, or whether it was a joke at all.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“She hesitated, then leant forward and pecked my cheek, and in the midst of all the passers-by busily playing the protagonist in their own stories, mine paused for a moment, caught like a rest in a piece of music.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends

“Marcia birthed Shona when she was forty-four. Coming from a family where the elders were now only in their fifties I found it strange, but Marcia made me think I might have been better being raised by parents who had experienced the fullness of life.”
― Moses McKenzie, An Olive Grove in Ends